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Sunday, 14 June 2015

Made in Japan

Sadly, my adventure in the Iron Painter has come to an end. I was eliminated in round 3 (still a better result than the previous edition where I was knocked out in round 2). I faced a very strong competitor - a Swedish lady known on the forums as Sybarite, so I knew that going any further would be very tough. Still, I did my best and created a Widow Weaver proxy along with some terrain (more about it in the previous post). Well, it wasn't enough so I can now only wish my opponent good luck in the next round(s).

I was a bit disappointed by the fact that I got an overall worst score for what I personally thought had been my best entry in the competition.Well, I guess it just goes to show how hard it is to achieve success in this kind of competition, where not only the skills but also the theme are evaluated by three judges.

Anyway, it is still possible to take part in the fun (or madness) of Iron Painter and submit your ELIM entries. I decided I'd keep the it going for at least another round. This time the theme was "Made in Japan". That's a really interesting theme that makes some really crazy interpretations possible. Obviously, Japan has rich and impressive history and one of the most fascinating cultures in the world. However, when thinking about contemporary Japan, many other things come to mind. My first thought was "Pokemon". Even though I've never watched the show, I thought I might at least try to use one of my models, tweak it a little and give it an interesting paintjob. I chose one of the small Terror Tots and looked up some images of the creatures from the franchise. I chose the one called Charmander.

The conversion wasn't very complicated. I simply removed the tiny horns and added a tail using a tentacle from Wyrd Sewer bits. I also used a head of a plastic flail for the "Poke-Ball" to go further with my take on the theme. I've also used a 40 mm Wyrd Zen base insert and painted it to resemble rice field (something I also associate with Japan). I used some Vallejo Still Water to complete the wet look. I thought that painting the base this way will give the impression that the miniature is actually bigger. It was a quick conversion and a fast paintjob but I had fun working on it.